Break

Top 10 Android Apps for Managing Personal Finance

Since smartphones took the world by storm, no self-respecting businessman is seen without one. Certainly, they do the basics of making calls and allowing you to send texts, but the beauty of smartphones is that they allow many aspects of life that were once confined to the office or the home to be taken on the road.

Apps are one of the most useful tools you can have on your phone and they’re available for a variety of functions. Perhaps one of the most useful purposes an app can serve is to allow you to manage your personal finances, whenever you like and wherever you happen to be. However, not every app is a worthwhile investment, and it can be a struggle to track down the ones that represent genuine worth as opposed to those that just ‘look cool’. You will also need to consider that an Android phone won’t necessarily have every app out there, as many are designed to be used on iPhones only. To help you find the right money management apps, here’s our list of ten of the best finance app for android:

This app has the added bonus of being free. Once loaded, it will automatically organise your income and your outgoings, keeping an eye on the money you earn and the bills you have to pay. It allows you to pay bills on the go and real-time alerts keep you posted when things are getting a little tight. This makes it a top app for everyday financial management, and will certainly help you to keep your home finances under control. In addition, should you have an investment portfolio, PageOnce will keep an eye on that for you too.

Another free app, Expensify is consistently rated as one of the top apps for people who spend much of their time travelling. It allows you to log your expenses, capture receipt images and manage your financial reports on the go. Then it’s simply a matter of emailing them through to your Finance department or, if you’re self-employed, to your accountant. As an added extra, Expensify is able to ‘read’ your receipt images, fill in the details of the expense and create a new expense detail on your behalf. Fully customisable, this app makes accounting on the go easy.

At just a few dollars, this app is well worth the cost. EasyMoney gives you the facility to create budgets, keep a watchful eye on your income and outgoings, create accounts and gain an accurate overview of your financial activities. This is a great app for business money management and lets you keep on top of money in-money out situations. In addition, EasyMoney gives you the ability to back-up your accounts, meaning that even if you change your phone, the information submitted and stored won’t be altered.

Money Lover is another freebie and automatically allows you to track your finances, including all the little details that might otherwise be overlooked. Acting like a financial calendar, this app alerts you to debts, reminds you of transactions and can even chart income from salaries, winnings and sales.

This started out as an online money manager, but has now been transformed into an app. Free to use, Mint allows you to securely track multiple accounts simultaneously, without having to switch between them. This means that you can keep an eye on both your personal and business accounts and if necessary contact your bank to transfer funds if the numbers are looking a little low.

Another free Android app, this allows you to manage multiple accounts in multiple currencies. This is particularly useful for businesses that trade abroad, and ensures that you can move your money to where it’s most needed and most effective. You can prioritise expenditures and send information to back up devices, such as Drop Box or Google Drive.

When times are hard, we often need to work out a clear and concise budget. This free app allows you to set weekly and monthly spending limits and will alert you when you are approaching your limit or overspending. This is more of a home finances management system, although it could be applied to a work role as well.

Not everyone’s finances work the same way, so this app gives you the ability to customise and prioritise all aspects of your personal finances. Perfect for those whose income might be sporadic and, even better, it’s another free app.

Losing your wallet can be an absolute nightmare. However, this free app means that you don’t need your wallet in order to make transactions. Google Wallet allows you to link your phone to a number of your cards, so that you can make purchases from your mobile. Essentially, it creates a virtual wallet in your phone, so that you don’t have to worry about losing your cards. A robust security system also ensures that you can lock the system remotely if you lose your phone, protecting your assets and preventing anyone from cleaning out your bank accounts!

Simplicity itself to operate and free to use, HelloExpense will track all your income and expenses and convert them into a spreadsheet, so that you can see at a glance just how your money is managed.

The majority of Android apps have the advantage of being free, so you can build up a comprehensive money management system that can take care of everything from spreadsheets and expenses through to giving you extra purchasing power – and all for practically nothing! The Android apps have time and again proven themselves to be reliable and easy to use, and all of these top ten apps are intuitive and simple to operate.

With the advent of smartphones and apps, we’re now taking more control over our own money management and for business owners it’s essential to know exactly where every dollar is at any time too. These apps put you back in control of your finances, even if you’re out and about or travelling abroad.

Carlo Pandian is a business graduate and writes about technology and finance covering everything from cloud accounting software by Intuit to the latest market trends. He also speaks at entrepreneurial conferences in Australia on how to start a company in the country.